State health department supports EPA health advisories on pervasive chemicals

CDPHE is committed to testing for the chemicals and mitigating exposure

REMOTE, June 15, 2022: The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment supports the Environmental Protection Agency's changes to the health advisories for the lifetime risk of PFAS in drinking water. Today the EPA announced it is lowering the health advisories for four PFAS chemicals. EPA's lifetime health advisories identify levels to protect people from adverse health impacts resulting from exposure throughout their lives to the chemicals in drinking water.

The state is ready to respond to the EPA's announcement today with continued testing for the chemicals and providing resources and technical assistance to water systems that need it. The state toxicologist says that while the announcement is not an emergency, water systems should take actions to reduce the chemicals in drinking water.

"For the past several years, Colorado has been providing resources for communities to test for PFAS chemicals, and we have assisted in reducing the chemicals in the environment. To date, we have sampled over 400 water systems, 15 firefighting districts, 152 groundwater sources, and 71 surface water sources for the chemicals. As a state we have stopped the continued use of firefighting foams that contain PFAS chemicals in most circumstances," said Jill Hunsaker Ryan, Executive Director, CDPHE. "We have made progress, and welcome today's announcement as we strive to do more to protect Coloradans from PFAS chemicals."

PFAS are a family of chemicals used in some firefighting foams and other products. PFAS are present throughout the environment, and it is expected that most people have some level of the chemicals in their blood.

In response to the EPA announcement, Colorado continues to take action on PFAS in drinking water, including:

• The PFAS Grant Program, which provides funds for water testing, installing water treatment, and other assistance. More than 20 communities are already participating in this program, and grant funds are still available.

• Colorado is scheduled to receive approximately $7.9M in clean water and $74.8M in drinking water funding over the next five years (2022-26) from the infrastructure bill. The funding is targeted to local water treatment and drinking water systems for emerging contaminants, including PFAS. Funds may be used for testing, remediation of emerging contaminants, including PFAS, and water filtration. The Water Quality Control Division works closely with the Department of Local Affairs and the Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority on water infrastructure projects and outreach efforts to local water systems.

• Working with community water systems to help them navigate EPA's action and protect consumers. This includes coordinating with systems that previously detected these chemicals to retest to verify current levels and encouraging those that haven't tested to do so now through our PFAS Grant Program.

• Developing two PFAS maps: One will combine all our data about PFOS and PFOA into a map to quickly identify the locations where sampling discovered PFAS. The other will show areas potentially at greater risk from contamination from these chemicals. Both maps will help us pinpoint future sampling.

Colorado has made consistent strides toward finding PFAS contamination and reducing people's exposure to the chemicals, including:

• Providing free sampling to 400 water systems, 15 firefighting districts, 152 groundwater sources, and 71 surface water sources like streams and reservoirs.

• Reimbursing 31 fire departments to take 11,250 gallons of firefighting foam containing PFAS out of service. Fire departments continue to sign up for this program.

• Requiring facilities that use or store firefighting foam that contains PFAS to register their facility. 159 facilities have registered so far.

• Strengthening and adding regulations regarding PFAS in wastewater and hazardous waste.

• Governor Polis has signed new laws to phase out the use of firefighting foam containing PFAS and the sale of consumer products that contain PFAS like carpet, food packaging, cosmetics, and toys.

The new EPA health guideline values reflect the fact that scientists now have stronger evidence of how certain PFAS chemicals can affect health. There is strong evidence that PFOA and PFOS affect the immune system, decrease infant birth weight, impact liver function and increase cholesterol. There is moderate evidence that PFAS are associated with preeclampsia and high blood pressure during pregnancy, and effects on thyroid hormones. There is also more evidence that PFOA increases the risk for kidney and testicular cancer. The health advisories each provide a margin of safety against these and other health impacts. Children ages 0-5 years, and people who are pregnant, planning to become pregnant, or breastfeeding are more susceptible to health impacts from these chemicals.

The lower the level of PFAS people are exposed to, the lower the risk of health impacts. People can get the facts, learn how to reduce their exposure, and talk to their health care providers about their concerns. People can:

• Check the 2020 Sampling Project dashboard for PFAS sample levels or contact their water providers to find out if they have discovered PFAS in their water system. People who get their water from private wells can have their water tested.

• Reduce exposure by using at-home water filters or an alternate source of water for drinking and cooking.

  • While many at-home water filters exist, they haven't all been certified to remove PFAS. Look for manufacturers that have demonstrated the water filter can remove PFAS to non-detectable levels.

  • Using bottled water is an individual choice, and CDPHE cannot verify that all bottled water is below PFAS health advisories. Reverse osmosis is a treatment that will remove PFAS. Choosing a brand that has this language on the bottle is important in selecting bottled water. Before choosing bottled water, consider the negative environmental impacts. Water treatment and bottled water also may remove fluoride, which is important for oral health. You can talk to your dentist about other ways to get fluoride.

• Talk to their health care providers about their concerns and actions to address potential health impacts. Health care providers can detect and treat many of the health impacts linked to PFAS.

• CDPHE has outlined these steps on its web page at colorado.gov/pfas-health.

If you have questions about the PFAS health advisories, contact CO HELP at 303-389-1687 or 1-877-462-2911. For more information on Colorado's work to address PFAS, please visit our website.

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